The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR) is Lafayette Investments Inc.'s 3rd Largest Position

Lafayette Investments Inc. cut its stake in The Progressive Co. (NYSE:PGR - Free Report) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 92,040 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 1,930 shares during the quarter. Progressive accounts for about 4.7% of Lafayette Investments Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Lafayette Investments Inc.'s holdings in Progressive were worth $22,054,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Chiron Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Progressive by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Chiron Investment Management LLC now owns 23,579 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $5,650,000 after purchasing an additional 3,385 shares during the period. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan purchased a new position in shares of Progressive during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,541,000. LaSalle St. Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Progressive in the fourth quarter worth $414,000. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in Progressive during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,242,000. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC raised its stake in Progressive by 87.0% during the 4th quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $405,000 after purchasing an additional 787 shares during the period. 85.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PGR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Progressive from $300.00 to $307.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com cut Progressive from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Progressive from $320.00 to $324.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James upgraded Progressive from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $305.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, December 26th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Progressive from $285.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Progressive currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $285.76.

Insider Activity at Progressive

In related news, CAO Mariann Wojtkun Marshall sold 585 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.29, for a total transaction of $142,324.65. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 3,983 shares of the company's stock, valued at $969,024.07. This represents a 12.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Susan Patricia Griffith sold 11,021 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.29, for a total value of $2,681,299.09. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 473,736 shares in the company, valued at $115,255,231.44. The trade was a 2.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 56,317 shares of company stock valued at $14,844,282 over the last ninety days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Progressive Trading Down 3.5 %

PGR stock traded down $9.68 during trading on Friday, hitting $265.45. The company had a trading volume of 3,648,773 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,640,852. The Progressive Co. has a 52-week low of $201.34 and a 52-week high of $292.99. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $273.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $257.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $155.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.43, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Progressive (NYSE:PGR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The insurance provider reported $4.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.28 by $0.37. Progressive had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 33.79%. The firm had revenue of $22.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.87 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that The Progressive Co. will post 14.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Progressive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.15%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 3rd. Progressive's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.70%.

Progressive Company Profile

The Progressive Corporation, an insurance holding company, provides personal and commercial auto, personal residential and commercial property, business related general liability, and other specialty property-casualty insurance products and related services in the United States. It operates in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property.